E3 2009: Nintendo Booth Report

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Go into the heart of Nintendo's lair with a report from the show floor.

By Michael Thomsen

No matter how jaded you might have become, there's always a glimmer of excitement the first time you get your hands on a new Nintendo game. Nintendo came to E3 2009 with something to prove to hardcore gamers and its giant booth was a colorful mix of mainstream and hardcore games. Fans crowded around to see Wii Fit Plus, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Red Steel 2, Golden Sun DS, and Sin and Punishment 2.

Matt versus Reggie XIII.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii had the biggest display at the Nintendo booth. The game offered a familiar but evolved experience that characterizes many of Nintendo's biggest games. There was something odd about seeing a 2D platformer featured as the centerpiece of Nintendo's booth. After three consecutive years of seeing motion control-centric games like Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and Wii Music anchor Nintendo's E3 presence, New Super Mario Bros. Wii came across as almost old fashioned. After last year's media grousing about the shift to mainstream games, Nintendo made a big point to rely on the gaming equivalent of comfort food to sate the gaming press.

Don't call it an expansion pack.

For the second consecutive year, Wii Sports Resort was another major focus at the Nintendo booth. The Wii Sports games have always been self-explanatory and comparatively simple to understand, but Nintendo did a great job of revealing new sports that demonstrated Wii Motion Plus and made the Resort feel like a fresh experience.

On the other side of the wall, Nintendo was showing off Wii Fit Plus. The upgrade to last year's genre defining blockbuster drew moderate crowds but couldn't compete with the throngs surrounding Wii Sports Resort. Like many incremental sequels at the show, I found myself not interested in waiting for a turn with the game. The game offers six new yoga/strength exercises and ten new mini-games, but the core mechanics seem unchanged from the original. The most eye-catching feature to me was the ability to create custom programs of different exercises and mini-games. But is that enough to warrant a brand new game? On another platform, Wii Fit Plus might have been downloadable content, but on Wii it apparently warrants a new retail product.

Go West.

Nintendo also showed off a terrifically diverse lineup of DS games. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was playable at demo stations around the perimeter of Nintendo's booth and predictably had the biggest lines of any DS title. Around the corner Nintendo was also showcasing Kingdom Hears: 358/2 Days which brought an admirably cinematic game to the DS. Nintendo is also getting serious about bringing more first party content to DSiWare with Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again.

Waaaaaaaa.

The iPhone has made a dramatic play to enter the gaming industry and Nintendo seemed ready to fight back with its established brands and games on an epic scale. Whether or not that's a winning strategy in the long run, Nintendo had plenty of good reasons on hand to make sure players don't trade their DS's for iPhones just yet.

Nintendo also played host to a bevy of hardcore third party games like Dead Space Extraction, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Red Steel 2, and Madden NFL 10. In spite of all the criticism leveled at the original Red Steel, the neo-western sequel managed to attract steady interest at Nintendo's booth. Almost three year's after the Wii launched, Red Steel 2 is hoping to finally deliver on the promise of precise motion controls in a hardcore game.

Wii love it.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories offered another nifty application of motion controls, used primarily for environmental interaction and puzzle solving rather than combat. As game design continues to evolve beyond blunt tactical combat, seeing Konami put so much effort into a game like Silent Hill was really exciting.

Longtime Nintendo fans will be happy to hear that Sin & Punishment 2 was also on display on the far side of Nintendo's booth. While not many players seemed to find the secluded nook when I passed through, the follow-up to the N64 import-only game offered more proof that Nintendo is taking its hardcore fans seriously. It might have taken a few years, and the lineup might not be as visually expansive as games on show at Sony and Microsoft's booth, Nintendo's talk about games for "everyone" definitely includes the hardcore this year.

Needs more hardcore.

Make sure to check out the gallery for even more from Nintendo's E3 booth!